E36 328 sport brake upgrade.
Discussion
My front calipers have had it. both seized, i need new discs n pads so thought to do the e46 upgrade. I wanted to know what I need to buy. I want to keep the costs as low as possible. Ive heard I need parts from a 330 e46 and some say I can use parts from a e46 m3. The only thing I wont be changing straight away is the servo master cylinder unit as I can wait and do that in the future. Can I have some advice please and where to source the parts. Thanx in advance
There's more here:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Basically, in your position, I'd go for front calipers, carriers and discs off an e46 328Ci. These have 300mm discs as opposed to the standard 284mm. The calipers are the same as what you've already got - but you need to replace yours anyway.
The reason for this is that the rears on your car are the same as the e46 328Ci. I believe the e46 330 had different rears. If you fit the fronts from a 300 without the matching rears and master cylinder you risk three things:
- overbraking on the front (too much front bias)
- messed up ABS (set up for the wrong bias)
- too small a master cylinder
The 300mm fronts on a e36 328 will increase brake torque (as the caliper is radially further out, and the disc is bigger). Note that the brake pad surface is the same though.
No doubt some people have fitted just the fronts from a 330 and kept the e36 rears and master cylinder - but as the link above shows this is not universally recommended. There's a very good link to a US site somehere which goes into a lot of detail on this but I can't find it.
I did the e46 328Ci upgrade a few months ago. It makes a difference, albeit not a massive one. Other e46 models have the right caliper carriers (for a 300mm disc) too (see realoem) but it's a mine field. The only variant that definitely has the carriers you would need is the 328Ci.
When I called BMW breakers for the bits, some very well known firms were very reluctant saying 'how can we tell which car they came off' (me: er...label them when you remove them?...) and so on. Having had the wrong parts sent to me before finally getting hold of the (actually quite rare) correct part, the right carrier carries the cast marking '505' among others.
Have fun...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Basically, in your position, I'd go for front calipers, carriers and discs off an e46 328Ci. These have 300mm discs as opposed to the standard 284mm. The calipers are the same as what you've already got - but you need to replace yours anyway.
The reason for this is that the rears on your car are the same as the e46 328Ci. I believe the e46 330 had different rears. If you fit the fronts from a 300 without the matching rears and master cylinder you risk three things:
- overbraking on the front (too much front bias)
- messed up ABS (set up for the wrong bias)
- too small a master cylinder
The 300mm fronts on a e36 328 will increase brake torque (as the caliper is radially further out, and the disc is bigger). Note that the brake pad surface is the same though.
No doubt some people have fitted just the fronts from a 330 and kept the e36 rears and master cylinder - but as the link above shows this is not universally recommended. There's a very good link to a US site somehere which goes into a lot of detail on this but I can't find it.
I did the e46 328Ci upgrade a few months ago. It makes a difference, albeit not a massive one. Other e46 models have the right caliper carriers (for a 300mm disc) too (see realoem) but it's a mine field. The only variant that definitely has the carriers you would need is the 328Ci.
When I called BMW breakers for the bits, some very well known firms were very reluctant saying 'how can we tell which car they came off' (me: er...label them when you remove them?...) and so on. Having had the wrong parts sent to me before finally getting hold of the (actually quite rare) correct part, the right carrier carries the cast marking '505' among others.
Have fun...
Thank you to both of you for that information. After reading this, im going to do 2 things now. Either source the 330 set up or just stick to a standard setup as I drive my car very mildly and realistically dont need any extra stopping power as from what Ive read, standard is more than adequate enough. Thanx again
speng said:
Thank you to both of you for that information. After reading this, im going to do 2 things now. Either source the 330 set up or just stick to a standard setup as I drive my car very mildly and realistically dont need any extra stopping power as from what Ive read, standard is more than adequate enough. Thanx again
Based on this statement, save your money and don't bother changing the brakes to E46's.Have a read of My post in this thread: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
(See note No.3 especially)
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